Known cable fastener arrangements particularly for articles of footwear for example, have been employed with limited success and it remains in the art to provide a simple, lightweight, inexpensive and easily manipulated multi-purpose cable fastening system. Fastening systems typically used for athletic footwear consist of a shoelace and a series of eyelets or holes on opposite sides of the instep. As is well known, the wearer dons the footwear typically by loosening the lace with both hands a series of times until the upper of the shoe is loose enough to allow the shoe to be placed on the foot. To tighten the shoe, the wearer pulls on the lace with both hands a series of times and subsequently ties a knot near the working ends of the lace securing the shoe about the foot in an attempt to retain a tight fit. However, the tightness of the fit does not always remain constant as shoelaces subsequently loosen due to the length of the laces and the pressure of each lace section upon the wearer's foot eventually evening out.
Shoelaces can also become untied forcing a wearer to interrupt physical activities and retie them to prevent tripping or stumbling over the untied laces. To an athlete, tripping or stumbling may have serious consequences. More importantly, the athlete may fall causing potentially serious injury to himself or others. Even tied shoelaces can extend below the shoe's outsole causing the user to fall or stumble.
Overtightening of a shoelace can cause high pressure points in the instep area greatly impairing the circulation of blood due to the pressure of the lace exerting a large force across a small area. Additionally, physically challenged persons have difficulty utilizing shoes with shoelaces because it takes two able hands to tie the laces. Further, worn shoelaces are susceptible to breakage during the stress applied thereto in the tightening process, and while they are inexpensive to replace, they may break at inopportune times making the shoes unusable unless a spare shoelace is quickly accessible.
Loop and pile element fasteners, e.g. VELCRO, have been used on shoes in lieu of or in addition to shoelaces as part of shoe fastening systems. These fasteners consist of two strips of material which produce a relatively strong holding force when interlocked together. However, loop and pile fasteners have a disadvantage in that they attract dirt and grime onto their holding surfaces causing their strips to lose holding power. In addition, a loop and pile fastener can become caught or snagged by a surface, potentially unfastening and losing its tensioning power.
Traditionally, articles of footwear that employ cable fasteners consist of lever-operable systems comprising a tensioning lever which is pivoted to one part of the footwear and a tension loop which is attached to another part of the footwear and interengageable with the tensioning lever. Known lever-operable fasteners of this kind are commonly utilized on skiing boots comprising a bearing bracket, which is riveted to one part of the boot. The tensioning lever is pivoted to the bearing bracket and has a plurality of recesses for receiving a tension loop, which is pivoted to another part of the boot. When the tension of the closed fastener is not sufficient, the tension loop must be inserted into a recess which is more remote from the pivotal axis of the tensioning lever. For this operation the fastener must be opened. During the subsequent closing operation the lever arm between the point of engagement of the tension loop and the pivotal axis of the tensioning lever will be larger so that a larger effort is required to close the fastener. It is desired to restrict the effort required to close the fastener on the one hand and to adjust the fastener within a wide range on the other hand. There remains a need for a means for holding the wearer's foot and cinching the upper about the wearer's foot that is simple in construction and which causes these two actions to occur by the manipulation of one element. The present invention accomplishes both objects simply, reliably and inexpensively.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,613 to Sussmann discloses a fastening system similar to the type used in ski boots that has been converted for use in a running shoe. The shoe has an instep shield, a central tightening lock, a steel wire or wire rope, and guide channels. The central tightening lock is designed to be rotatable with the wire or rope attached to a part thereof. Although this fastening system overcomes many of the problems associated with shoelaces, it tends to be costly to manufacture the central tightening lock and labor intensive to assemble its connecting structures with the shoe. Further, the amount of plastic used for the central tightening lock, the instep shield, and the guide channels increases the weight of the shoe, which may be particularly undesirable for an avid runner desiring a lightweight running shoe. Also, the tightening lock and other moving parts can be susceptible to contamination by dirt detrimentally affecting the performance of the fastening system.
Both U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,952 to Olivieri and U.S. Pat. No. 4,408,403 to Martin illustrate a fastening arrangement similar to the type used in ski boots, and disclose a continuous cable that consecutively weaves through opposing pulleys alternatively arranged on the ski boot and leads through a guide actuated by a rear mounted lever. Although these systems address many of the problems associated with cable mechanisms attempting to hold the wearer's foot and cinch the upper about the wearer's foot by the manipulation of one element, the disclosed fastening arrangements suffer from numerous disadvantages that the present invention overcomes. One such disadvantage is that the disclosed fastening arrangements apply an extremely inefficient anchoring force along a direction approximately 90.degree. to the cinching direction of the tongue in relation to the upper. Such application of force is inefficient, and requires the user to exert a large and undue amount of effort in an attempt to secure the footwear. Further, the disclosed fastening arrangements are unduly complex, are expensive to manufacture, have questionable durability, utilize excessive manipulation elements, have limited application and do not permit independent adjustment of tension along a toe box region, a midfoot region, a heel region, and an ankle region thereof, to provide a personalized fit.